According to Wipro executives that it is Abidali Neemuchwala's ability to deliver results that caught Azim Premji's eye.BENGALURU/MUMBAI: Since the time in the early 90s when he was personally mentored by current Tata Consultancy Services chief executive N Chandrasekaran, Abidali Z Neemuchwala has come a long way.

In 1992 when he joined TCS, Neemuchwala took his first steps in the world of IT services when the then nascent outsourcing industry was on the cusp of an unprecedented boom that would see it become a multi-billion dollar sector.

A lot has changed in the industry since those heady days of the 90s. Companies have risen and fallen. A new generation of leaders have followed industry legends such as NR Narayana Murthy and Azim Premji.

What has, however, not changed during the last two decades is Neemuchwala’s ambition for bigger roles and penchant for taking up larger challenges, according to executives and people who have worked closely with him.

“He wanted a shot at the top spot and he got it. He is a great executor as you have seen and can handle bold moves. The growth in TCS BPO was because he was key in the Citi backoffice buyout, which was at the time, big for TCS,” said a TCS executive who has worked with Neemuchwala. He requested anonymity.

The executive mentioned above was referring to TCS’s back office unit’s rapid growth during the time of the 2008 recession when the company bought out Citigroup’s back office captive unit for $505 million and unlocked a multi-billion dollar outsourcing contract.

Neemuchwala quickly climbed the ranks at India’s largest software services firm TCS during his two-decade stint at the company. He was personally mentored by Chandrasekaran before being put in charge of the BPO unit with the mandate of turning it into a multi-billion dollar business unit.

It is that drive and ability to deliver results that caught the eye of Wipro’s billionaire chairman Azim Premji, according to Wipro executives who requested anonymity. At Wipro, however, Neemuchwala faces a different set of challenges altogether.

“Much will also depend on the management team that Abid will choose over time and how quickly he moves to steady-state with his team and the org structure. We foresee some nearterm attrition in Wipro’s management ranks,” said Viju George and Amit Sharma of JP Morgan India in a note to clients on Monday.

“Per se, this is not a severe worry as the new CEO is entitled to rebuild the team & organisation in accordance with his vision and own wish list of his management team’s strengths and abilities. Abid has likely had an opportunity to assess Wipro’s management team members’ performance and abilities over the past few months - so management changes could be forthcoming in short order instead of being needlessly drawnout. Hopefully, the organisation willlikely stabilise after that,” they added.

Forty-eight-year-old Neemuchwala will have to draw on all his expertise at handling large customers at TCS if he is to succeed at Wipro, experts say. He has worked closely with most of the clients in TCS' biggest market – the US – in his earlier position as VP of global delivery and services.

He also implemented the Global Network Delivery model for US clients at TCS and was also part of the Process Excellence Group, a team at TCS that institutionalises processes that deliver better service. He was also a key part of TCS’ automation initiatives.

“Whether Wipro can be changed is another thing. It’s not just the top there, it’s the entire business that has to change. It will take time, so you cannot write in 3 months that he succeeded or failed,” said the TCS executive mentioned above.

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